NYC's Best New Restaurants and Bars of 2014 (So Far)

At the rate that new restaurants open and shutter in NYC, six months can easily feel like several years in another city when it comes to navigating the food and drink options.

Just when you feel like you’re catching up on the best of 2013, the newcomers start piling up: highly anticipated openings like Ivan Ramen and Black Seed Bagel practically demand a visit, while buzzed-about new dishes—like Narcissa’s carrots Wellington—fill your Instagram feed until you have to try them yourself. As if to demonstrate that you never know what to expect in this town, TV star Bobby Flay opened a restaurant that critics actually liked (though we’re not middle-aged white men here, so you won’t find Gato in this list—sorry, Bobby).

To help you sort through the noise and prioritize your culinary adventures, we polled our team to pinpoint the restaurants and bars that have made the strongest first impression so far in 2014. From a game-changing bagel joint to a nouveau Peking duck house, these are the 15 best new places to eat and drink in NYC. Now get out there and feast!

Black Seed Bagels

Neighborhood: Nolita
Address and phone: 170 Elizabeth St (212-730-1950)
Website:blackseedbagels.com
It's easy to blame the hype machine for Black Seed's instant success. The collaboration between food-world darlings Mile End and scene-makers The Smile—kitted out with a mad Instagrammable industrial-luxe decor—drew to Cronut-level lines down the block from day one. Just another case of food-fiend thirst, right? Sorry, skeptics—this "New York-meets-Montreal" shop really is making some the best (if not the best) bagels in town: perfectly chewy, reasonably sized, and wood-fired, with a suggestion of Montreal's signature honey-boiled sweetness. The shop serves a variety of New-Jewish deli toppings—beet-cured lox and tobiko cream cheese cozying up to old-school smoked trout—but the staff isn’t too precious to toast if that's what you're into. Just don’t ask for your bagel “scooped”—you won’t get a slap in the face with a wet kipper, but you’ll deserve one.—Regan HofmannOrder this: The No. 3 sandwich (tobiko spread, salmon, butter lettuce); radish salad; toasted sesame bagel with butter and smoked trout (a.k.a., the Canadian Classic)

Emily

Neighborhood: Clinton Hill, Brooklyn
Address and phone: 919 Fulton St (347-844-9588)
Website:pizzalovesemily.com
Clinton Hill’s Emily is a true neighborhood affair, run by husband-and-wife team Matt and Emily Hyland—chef and front woman, respectively—and packed with locals bouncing to hip-hop and obscure 90s hits. It should also be a destination. Great pizza bubbles in many ovens across New York, and the charred, chewy beauties have immediately catapulted themselves into the city’s upper echelons. The all-white, truffle-covered Emily melds mozzarella and pistachios with the sweet kiss of honey—a surprising ingredient that also lends balance to tomato sauce and pickled chilies in the Colony. To add to the pie-making cred, Slice founder Adam Kuban has been running his pop-up pizzeria, Margot’s Pizza, out of Emily (follow @margotspizza for details). On regular nights, though, sticking to pizza means missing out equally vivid pastas, like the trumpets slicked with nutmeg-tinged duck ragu. A calzone oozing chocolate and marshmallows ensures even dessert is an ode to carbs.—Alia AkkamOrder this: The Emily, the Colony, trumpets with duck ragu, s’mores calzone

Narcissa

Neighborhood: East Village
Address and phone: 21 Cooper Square (212-228-3344)
Website:narcissarestaurant.com
To a typical New Yorker, a beet just isn’t as exciting as a porterhouse. Put that same New Yorker in front of the spit-roasted beet dish at Narcissa and watch his whole world get turned upside down. Chef John Fraser (of Dovetail) gets his ingredients from a private farm 90 miles north of Manhattan, which boasts a bounty of flavor-packed vegetables, as well as a retired cow that lends the restaurant its name. He slow-roasts the beets for five hours, tears apart the charred vegetable flesh, and plates them with dill oil and horseradish cream. The result—like many of Fraser’s dishes—is intensely earthy and beautifully balanced. Request the “chef counter” when you make your reservation and you can watch Frasier and his team plate dishes like figs, ricotta, and prosciutto with oversized tweezers, while watching jerked sweet potatoes revolving on the rotisserie. Don’t get us wrong, there’s glorious meat to be found at Narcissa, too—but we’d order the cumin and cardamom-inflected carrots Wellington over the baby chicken any day. Pastry chef Deborah Racicot’s desserts incorporate savory elements seamlessly; both her toasted-fennel cheesecake and olive oil, Meyer lemon, and thyme ice cream sundae are sensational.—Erin MosbaughOrder this: Rotisserie-crisped beets; poached farm egg; rotisserie-grilled sweet potato; potato gnocchi; carrots Wellington; steamed black bass; toasted-fennel cheesecake; winter sundae

Ivan Ramen

Neighborhood: Lower East Side
Address and phone: 25 Clinton St (646-678-3859)
Website: ivanramen.com
It felt like we waited years for Ivan Ramen to actually open, and that’s because we did. But finally, at the beginning of May, Japanese ramen culture’s most famous gaijin, Ivan Orkin, unleashed his slow-poached restaurant. And what was inside was…surprising. Not because the noodles didn’t live up to the hype: the Triple-Pork Triple-Garlic Mazemen packs a mortar blast of flavor worthy of its hyperbolic name, and Orkin's rye noodles give shio ramen an earthy dimension unlike any other we’ve tasted. But it’s his plated food that caught us off-guard, like a much-ballyhooed scrapple waffle prepared in the style of oknomiyaki—Pennsylvania Amish food breaking bad in Gomorrah. Or the fried chicken and chicken liver bites with honey mustard, a dish that shames all other chicken nuggets back to the pink-slime sludge they came from. And in the few places where Orkin shows a lighter touch, he shines: Pickled daikon radish amped up with dried shrimp and scallop chili oil is funky and fun in all the right ways. Kind of like the story of a white Jewish guy from Long Island who moved to Japan and became a revered ramen master. Sometimes, you just gotta go for broke.—Foster KamerOrder this: Triple-Pork Triple-Garlic Mazemen; JFC (fried chicken); Lancaster Okonomiyaki; shio ramen; pickled daikon XO

Decoy

Neighborhood: West Village
Address and phone: 529-1/2 Hudson St (212-691-9700)
Website:decoynyc.com
Of all the great restaurateur-chef teams in NYC—Ken Friedman and April Bloomfield, Josh Pickard/Luke Ostrom and Andrew Carmellini, et al—few have the clarity of vision of Chinese-food scholar Ed Schoenfeld and dim-sum master Joe Ng, whose budding Red Farm empire has made food-world memes out of Pac-Man dumplings and Katz's pastrami egg rolls. At Decoy, tucked into the basement of the original Red Farm in the West Village, they've tweaked the formula just enough to feel fresh while still maintaining the brand of playful, farm-to-table–inspired Chinese cooking their known for. A few classics from upstairs—like those shrimp and snow pea leaf dumplings that stare up at you out of their wooden box, asking to be eaten—have made their way to the darker, moodier underground lair. But Decoy's raison d'être is its superb Peking ducks, reserved ahead of time so that they can be cooked to order (most restaurants reheat and flash-fry pre-cooked birds), resulting the ideal balance of shatteringly crispy skin and moist meat. They come with pancakes and all the requisite feexins, but you also get to complete your communal, prix-fixe feast with other dishes from the menu. We haven't hit a dud yet (though the pastrami in a fried triangle of pastry continues to feel like a gimmick), but highlights include the crispy fried fish skins that kick off the meal, shrimp-stuffed shishito peppers, and a smart Sino-Jamaican spin on jerk chicken. Nightowls can roll up to the bar late-night (until 1:45am) for duck-and-kimchee sandwiches and excellent barrel-aged Negronis.—Chris SchonbergerOrder this: Peking duck, shrimp and snow pea leaf dumplings, fried fish skins, shrimp-stuffed shishito peppers, Jamaican-Chinese style jerk baby chicken

El Rey Coffee Bar & Luncheonette

Neighborhood: Lower East Side
Address and phone: 100 Stanton St (212-260-3950)
Website: elreynyc.com
El Rey is the kind of establishment you dream of having in your ‘hood—a bright, airy cafe whose natural rhythms make it equally appealing at 8am and 8pm. Stop in early for excellent coffee service and pastries baked with buckwheat flour; spend afternoons perched with a laptop over iced agua frescas of cucumber and juniper; and wile away the evening sipping craft beers and eating beet-pickled eggs while bantering with neighbors. Head chef Gerardo Gonzalez channels SoCal vibes with seasonal produce and a colorful palette. There are sprigs of watercress, smashed avocados, and green pestos everywhere; chia puddings with coconut and banana; and a deconstructed falafel that keeps the garbanzos out of the fryer—it’s all very salubrious without rubbing your nose in it. Owner Nick Morgenstern seems to be quietly plotting downtown domination (in addition to El Rey, he owns Goat Town and Morgenstern’s Finest Ice Cream, with another new project in the works), and we couldn’t be more pleased.—Scarlett LindemanOrder this: Grits bowl with braised pork; frittata with fennel salad; jicama salad; sweet potato bread; any of the pastries

Eim Khao Mun Kai

Neighborhood: Elmhurst, Queens
Address and phone: 81-32 Broadway (718-424-7156)
Website:Facebook
Silky Hainanese chicken, also known as khao man gai, is a Southeast Asian street-food staple, and it’s the only dish on offer at this tiny, brick-walled Elmhurst storefront. The shop’s Thai-style rendition—the chef hails from Bangkok—features boneless chicken whole-poached with ginger and a flurry of secret ingredients, served over a mound of jasmine rice perfumed with more ginger and amped up by chile-spiked garlic sauce. It’s accompanied by slivers of dark meat, liver, and gizzards, as well as tried-and-true accoutrements like cooling cucumbers and not-so-summer-friendly soup. Poultry hanging from hooks and a street cart separating the kitchen from the dining room complete the hawker-stall vibe.
Order this: Chicken, duh—Alia Akkam

The Gander

Neighborhood: Chelsea
Address and phone: 15 W 18th St (212-229-9500)
Website:thegandernyc.com
Jesse Schenker doesn’t get as much hype as plenty of less talented chefs, but he’s amassed serious food-world cred—and loyal regulars—through his modern French-American cooking at Recette in the West Village. His second effort, the Gander, couldn’t feel more different than the intimate original, but it solidifies Schenker’s spot among New York’s elite chefs. It’s sprawling and boisterous, with a spacious bar where you can sidle up for high-low creations like brisket tater tots and Buffalo sweetbreads, plus a cocktail like the Smoking Thyme (Bacardi rum, Talisker mist, honeydew, thyme, lime). While the vibe is more big-box Chelsea than charming West Village, Schenker’s food is just as original and satisfying here—highlights include surf-and-turf spaghetti with clams, guanciale, and fennel, and a hearty cherry-pork jus pork chop. Ethereal desserts like a retro angel food cake prove pastry chef Christina Lee has once again struck gold.—Alia AkkamOrder this: Buffalo sweetbreads, brisket tater tots, pork chop, spaghetti and clams, Smoking Thyme

Russ & Daughters Cafe

Neighborhood: Lower East Side
Address and phone: 127 Orchard St (212-475-4881)
Website:russanddaughterscafe.com
Joel Russ opened a small appetizing store on Orchard Street in 1914, where he sold salt-cured herring and salmon. He moved his smoked-fish emporium to Houston Street, where it still thrives today, and re-named it Russ & Daughters—a true New York institution in the rarified company of places like Katz's and Grand Central Oyster Bar. Fast-forward a century: Niki Russ Federman, Russ’ great-granddaughter, along with Russ' great-grandson Josh Russ Tupper, has expanded the family business with a full-blown, sit-down café. Here, you’ll find everything that made Russ & Daughters famous over the years (and then some), only now served in beautiful plated form—velvety chopped liver, creamy borscht, crispy potato latkes topped with salmon roe and crème fraiche, soft scrambled eggs with caviar, and exceptional smoked and cured fish. The restaurant’s décor pays tribute to the original shop, with plenty of playful updates. A redesigned-but-classic neon sign marks the back facade of the café; inside, there’s a soda fountain-style bar turning out creative cocktails and egg creams, plus herringbone-tile floors and fantastic illustrations by Jason Polan. It’s not everyday that a business stays in one family for four generations; New Yorkers should feel very lucky that the R&D clan has not only made it this far, but also found a brilliant way to update without losing its identity.—Erin MosbaughOrder this: Sandwich boards, chopped liver, potato latkes, soft-scrambled eggs and caviar, egg cream

Dear Irving

Neighborhood: Gramercy
Address and phone: 55 Irving Pl
Website:dearirving.com
The confluence of Union Square and Gramercy has long been a frat-boy stomping ground. But just as pedigreed bars like Terroir and Middle Branch have begun to civilize Murray Hill, Dear Irving is bringing cocktail cred to this underserved pocket of the city. Bartender Meaghan Dorman is well-known for the drinks she turns out at Raines Law Room, and she brings that same refinement to this classy cocktail joint inspired by Midnight in Paris (don’t miss the opulent Marie Antoinette room in the back). Try a well-executed classic such as the Greenpoint (rye, yellow Chartreuse, sweet vermouth, orange, and Angostura bitters), or the dessert-like Hero of Little Venice with aged Venezuelan rum, sweet vermouth, root beer, and a frothy egg. When hunger strikes, summon your server via a discreet bell that brings you one step closer to black truffle-mint steak tartare.—Alia AkkamOrder this: Greenpoint, Hero of Little Venice, Screaming Viking, Rebel Isle

Dirck the Norseman

Neighborhood: Greenpoint, Brooklyn
Address and phone: 7 North 15th St (718-389-2940)
Website:dirckthenorseman.com
Let's begin by acknowledging that Dirck the Norseman is easily the best new bar name of the year—and not only because Dirck sounds like the type of dude who would get along famously with our mascot Vik. But a name only goes so far. Dirck's more impressive accomplishment is filling in one of biggest holes in the New York beer landscape: the lack of brewpubs. Outrageous real-estate prices have traditionally been an impediment to brewery-restaurant hybrids here (who has room for a proper kitchen, let alone fermentation tanks?), but Brouwerij Lane owner Ed Raven has figured out a solution by setting his New Brooklyn-meets-Mitteleuropa beer hall on a deserted in industrial block in Greenpoint. The cavernous space—equal parts stained glass and stacks of chopped wood—pays homage to both classic German breweries (Jever, Gaffel) and local beer-nerd favorites (Carton, Finback). But the real star of the show is Greenpoint Beer & Ale, which brews a rotating selection of well-balanced house beers on a five-barrel system in the back, often highlighting obscure styles like English mild, grisette, and helles lager. Here's the summer game plan: Post up at a communal table near the open warehouse doors at Dirck. Order steins of Tupelo IPA. Feast on enormous chicken schnitzel smothered in beer-spiked peppercorn sauce. Repeat as necessary.—Chris SchonbergerOrder this: House beers, chicken schnitzel with beer-peppercorn sauce

Cafe El Presidente

Neighborhood: Flatiron
Address and phone: 30 W 24th St (646-429-8284)
Website:cafeelpresidente.com
It's tempting to think of Cafe El Presidente as a Mexican Eataly (Meataly?) in miniature, with pizza swapped out for tacos, and Bohemia in place of Peroni. Like the Italian gastro-playground down the block, the newcomer combines a number of operations under one roof, including a juice bar and coffeeshop, a tortilleria, a taqueria, and even a small (if mostly-for-show) retail element. But while Eataly relies on sheer sensory overload, Cafe El Presidente—the latest from the Tacombi team—is more focused in its staging, delivering a color-saturated, escapist fantasy that channels the street-food traditions of cities like Veracruz and Mexico City. Mornings bring made-to-order juices (pineapple-ginger-mint) and café con leche, but what you're really after is the tacos. While new-school Mexican joints around town fiddle with the art of masa, the Vista Hermosa hit squad installed here is quietly making some of Manhattan's best corn tortillas, which you can watch being made from scratch throughout the day. The rotating spit of pineapple-crowned al pastor provides the most successful filling, but juicy skirt steak and slow-roasted Berkshire pork carnitas also hold their own as well. And the best part is, there's more to come from Cafe El Presidente: Plans are in the works to add a subterranean seafood restaurant, as well as a guest-chefs series that brings in Mexico's best taqueros from week-long stints behind the taco bar.—Chris SchonbergerOrder this: Al pastor tacos, carnitas tacos, carne asada tacos, quesadilla maiz azul, fresh juices

Tessa

Neighborhood: Upper West Side
Address and phone: 349 Amsterdam Ave (212-390-1974)
Website:tessanyc.com
North of Lincoln Center, the Upper West Side rarely attracts out-of-area diners to its establishments. With the opening of Tessa, exceptions to that rule—including the Michelin-starred Dovetail and beloved Jewish institution Barney Greengrass—have some new company. There’s a welcome sense of downtown energy to the place, with industrial-chic fittings replacing the usual calm, white table-cloth vibe. A clever use of pierced metal grates separates space, which begins from a curved bar and ascends a few steps to a 75-seat dining room. In the kitchen, Cedric Tovar—formerly a consulting chef at West Village hot spots Bobo and Rosemary’s—turns out the sort of rustic, vaguely Mediterranean fare that’s tailor-made for converting regulars: Pastas are handmade, the strip steak frites comes with grilled romaine (for those who require greens with every meal), and the sharable desserts steer clear of cloying sweetness. Think of Tessa as a sophisticated local: casual enough for a Tuesday night bar meal, yet accomplished enough for an evening of celebration—even if you have to trek on the 1/2/3 subway line to get there.—Nick SchonbergerOrder this: House dips; linguini with Tasmanian pepper and lemon; strip steak and frites; caramel-ricotta torta

Bar Bolonat

Neighborhood: West Village
Address and phone: 611 Hudson St (212-390-1545)
Website:barbolonatny.com
As a chef and restaurateur, Einat Admony understands how to bring the customer to that warm, familiar place we all crave while keeping the dining experience exhilarating. The chef, who grew up near Tel Aviv, is motherly and welcoming—qualities that she channels into her modern Israeli cooking at Bar Bolonat, an ambitious followup to her beloved falafel joint, Taïm, and the Middle East-meets-Mediterranean Balaboosta. Like Jerusalem itself, the menu at Bolonat is a melting pot of Yemenite, Arabic, Sephardic, and North African flavors. Just take the poussin, a baby chicken glazed with pomegranate and roasted until the skin is crisp, then served on a walnut-studded bed of Persian rice to soak up the precious juices. Then there’s the Jerusalem bagel, which has a sweet, yeasty interior and golden exterior dotted with sesame seeds; for dipping, there’s a bowl of fruity olive oil and house-made za'atar, a mixture of ground herbs, sumac, sesame seeds, and salt. The starters here are so good, they could constitute an entire meal: Grilled baby artichokes served with pistachio yogurt present a play between smoky and cooling flavors, while fried kibbeh—bulgar balls stuffed with beef and pine nuts—come with a lively preserved lemon sauce to offset the spice.—Erin MosbaughOrder this: Jerusalem bagel; grilled baby artichokes; green fatush; Hudson street kibbeh; hand-cut pasta with garlic, ricotta, and chilies; lamb belly and shoulder; poussin

Sweetwater Social

Neighborhood: Noho
Address and phone: 643 Broadway (212-253-0477)
Website:Facebook
Yes, you can take over the foosball table or watch the World Cup here, but don’t mistake this underground Noho hangout for your everyday, PBR-soaked dive bar. Bartenders Tim Cooper (Goldbar) and Justin Noel (1534) balance the rec-room fun with some serious cocktails, like an herbaceous Root Beer Buck made with Genever and from-scratch ginger and root-beer syrups. Pari mini corn dogs with an imaginative Manhattan riff featuring tequila, Barolo Chinato, and crème de cacao, then play some tabletop shuffleboard. The unspoken motto here seems to be “act like a kid, drink like an adult”—we can’t argue with that.—Alia AkkamOrder this: Root Beer Buck, mini corn dogs (note: a new cocktail and food menu is coming soon)

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